Friday, January 14, 2011

COMMODITY Update: Stockholder's Meeting

As we can see by this PowerPoint presentation, less than 24 hours after COMMODITY was placed, 7Pieces O' Miso have been purchased. There being 16 Parts to the Work, this is close to a 50% sales ratio and consequent reduction of the visible parts of the Seed Work. At this time we are unable to say how many, if any, of the Judges have seen the Seed Work.

I have listened to Marketing/Sales argue vociferously about my pricing tier and my decision to include the digits with the outer appendages; I think that, given this overwhelming response to my Initial Public Offering, my conclusions as to the market value and timing of the offer have proven my decisions were the correct ones. Let Steve Ballmer throw a chair at that!

c_^

The 7/16 Reduction Ratio of the Work means consequently that the Value of the remaining Pieces has risen considerably. The Participation of the Speculative Angels has already increased the Real Net Worth of the UWA Artist's Prize Pool to the tune of over 1200L, and that's nothing to sneeze at. I am sure all of the artists participating in the UWA Challenge will join me in a round of grateful applause for these Speculators.

This also means that the Work itself has gained in intrinsic value, being now a communal effort and not just that of the solo artist *bows modestly*, creating itself through the interaction and participation of the viewing public. We will not be able to put a final Real Market Value on this Work or its Parts until the Round is done for January, which is when whatever is left of COMMODITY will be removed from sale. The resulting Carcass will be the final physical piece and will incorporate photos of the deconstruction of the Pieces by date as a record of the initial Work, a list of the Speculators/Participators as co-creators of the final Work (subject to their agreement) and these blog posts.

c_^

The Price of course does not change for the individual Pieces, nor will I condone switching to a Bidding War approach. Following Sales/Marketing's advice, we'd now be doubling (or more) the price on the individual extant Parts and gearing up a factory in Taiwan or China to pump out cheap digital plastic replicas of COMMODITY for Wal-Mart.

You know my views on this matter. I believe these ideas, typical of Old Business Thinking, would damage theintrinsic value of the work, substituting a negligibletransient gain inmarket income for a long-term reduction in value and consequent consumer demand, resulting in an overall Net Loss for this piece. This would be fiscally irresponsible.

Furthermore, it would incur negative feedback and negative brand desirability from the Speculators who will lose confidence in our integrity and from the Art Community itself. I have also quashed the idea that we harvest the names of the Speculators for Marketing's use or that we somehow figure out how to turn COMMODITY into a Facebook-clone or Minecraft-_-

I believe, as many of you are aware, that the S/M division is mired in a 19th-century business paradigm that refuses to budge from its entrenched, or should I say entombed, market strategy. This is not the Wild West, gentlemen, nor are we Robber Barons or the Railroad. We are a small company with one asset, namely myself. We must be nimble; we must be flexible and creative in our approach. It is obvious to me that S/M does not understand this Work and therefore I must discount their advice. I think that the overwhelming response to this IPO speaks for itself, and I hope I have your continued confidence in this campaign.

Actually, that is part of what I will blog; for the Seed Piece to be reassembled will take the willingness of the Speculators, a place where multiple people can rez, co-operation... it's fun to think about.